


A mother's instinct

by Micte



Series: All we are [5]
Category: Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-04
Updated: 2016-08-04
Packaged: 2018-07-29 08:23:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7677136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Micte/pseuds/Micte
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jupiter’s love is, in his own experience, endless. So why wouldn’t her mother instinct be capable of crossing the vastness of space?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Thursday

**Author's Note:**

> Fifth part of my 'family feels' series 'All We Are'.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” says Jupiter and Caine hugs her to try to calm her nerves.

Campaigning has always been harder for her than for him. He had been a soldier for a big part of his life after all and even though everything is much calmer now, these things they are doing: entering (business) enemy territory to go into (legal) battles in the name of freedom (or well, Jupiter’s idea of it) felt quite familiar. He’s at ease getting into spaceships, falling in formation behind his Queen and making sure she went in and out without a scratch.

It makes him feel good. Useful. This is what he was made for after all: to win battles, even the excruciatingly slow and frustrating ones.

That’s why he whispers, “It’s going to be alright. You’ve done this three times already. You’ve got this.”

But then he’s surprised by her reply, “I’m not talking about the deal,” she comes out of his arms and looks up to his puzzled face, “I mean yeah, this legal circus still makes me nervous but… I have another kind of bad feeling.”

“What is it?”

“The kids.”

 _Oh._ Caine swallows hard. He thinks their children must be the only subject that Jupiter handles better than him, actually.

Before, they were used to travel together without other complications than the duration of the campaigns and the Earth months they would miss because of them, (The first Christmas was especially hard for Jupiter), but after they became parents, when Jupiter decided it was time to go back to work, there was another issue to take into account:

Caine wanted to bring the kids with them and Jupiter didn’t.

For him it was a matter of practicality: he wanted their family under the same roof as him so he could assure their safety at all times. For Jupiter it was more complicated than that: she wanted their kids to have normal lives and that meant no trips to refineries or contact with the Entitled before they were eighteen (at least).    

Caine hated the idea of leaving their children on Earth, but he had to admit that them having a normal childhood sounded a lot nicer than what he experienced when he was a kid, and so, after a long time of reflection on the matter, he accepted.

And he knew that she hated being away from them as much as him, that’s why they had kind of silently agreed on a way of coping with Max and Cephei’s absence: they thought about their babies all the time, but neither of them brought them up until it was time to go back to Earth.

But they still have a lot of work to do on Spika.

“What do you mean?” he asks, starting to breath consciously, controlling the speed of the air going into his lungs. _Be calm._

“I feel like… like something’s wrong. Like something bad is about to happen.”

“You want me to contact Stinger?”

“I already did… he says they are fine. They are getting ready to go to the park but… it hurts,” she takes her hand off Caine’s shoulder and puts it on her chest, right over her heart, “I don't know, it’s hard to explain.”

Caine nods. Although the nature of his creation didn’t allow him to experience this first hand, he knows how instinct works. Jupiter is still new at motherhood, true, and she would often say that she’s a disaster but considering that Caine knows pretty well the capacities of lycantant pups he would say she’s doing a pretty good job. And if the Entitled are right, DNA is sacred; a powerful link. And also Jupiter’s love is, in his own experience, endless. So why wouldn’t her mother instinct be capable of crossing the vastness of space?

Caine doesn’t want to believe their kids are in trouble, since Stinger is there to protect them, but he doesn’t have a reason to doubt his wife’s instincts either.

“Do you want to go back?”

“You know I can’t leave…” she bites her lip and doesn’t even bother to finish her sentence, because he knows exactly what she means. She’s already looking at him with those big, brown pleading eyes.

“Jupiter…” he starts to protest, averting his gaze to the floor, trying to break the spell.

“Just… can you go check on them?” she steps again into his vision range, “How long can it take?”

“I won’t leave you here alone…”

“I’ll be with Diomika’s crew. And Kalique’s bodyguards will be around too.”

“Mmmh…” Caine looks at the ceiling, trying to be patient. Jupiter must be feeling really bad if she thinks the thought of Kalique’s court being around is going to comfort him… but her sense of urgency is contagious. Whatever she’s feeling, is in the air, all around her, in the high pitch of her pleading voice, in the pressure of her nails in his arms…

In the accelerated beating of her heart.

“Please Caine just… it would make me feel so much better if you go and check on them. Don’t you want to see them?”

Now he closes his eyes as he lets his head drop. He doesn’t answer this because it’s obviously a trap: _Of course I want to see them._ He thinks about them every time he looks at Jupiter: how she and Cephei cross their arms in the same way when something serious is going on, or how Max pouts like his mother when he wants to ask for something.

Like she’s doing right now, “Please Caine. Don’t make me give you an order…”

“Fine,” he says at last, looking at her, “I’ll drop for a couple of hours. But if this is a favor, your Majesty, it’s gonna cost you...”

His wife smiles with a mix of relief and mischief that daze him but he notices that it doesn’t get to her eyes, “Now this is a negotiation I’m going to enjoy,” she says and stands on her toes to kiss him. Is fast, but passionate. A little taste of what awaits for him later, “we’ll discuss your terms after the mission, Soldier.”

“Be prepared,” he takes a moment to let his hands wander from her shoulders to the hem of her short dress, and then they come back up, lifting it a little, “I’ll have some… demands…”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

They kiss again and he holds her tight against him. This time, he lingers close to her for a few seconds.

For Caine the only thing worse than leaving his children back on Earth, is leaving Jupiter alone in space.

“Thank you,” she breathes into his lips.

“I love you.”


	2. Thursday

An alarm goes off as Caine’s ship exists the portal to Earth and the first thing that crosses his mind is, _Shit, Jupiter was right,_ which doesn't happen that often, but he has no time to dwell on it.

A Keeper’s message announces than an unauthorized ship has left Earth and his security team is requesting clearance for shooting.

Caine asks for their coordinates as Stinger’s voice comes in from another channel talking over the Keeper.

“Call them off! Caine!”

“What the hell is going on?!”

“They’ve got Max! Don’t shoot! Don’t do it!”

For a few seconds is as if time has stopped. Caine is hyper aware of everything going on around him. Stinger coughs as he’s discussing with another Keeper over the Comm, ordering to tail and block the hostile ship and to not open fire under any circumstance. It sounds like he’s having trouble to breath. He’s hurt. He must have fought.

Max has been kidnapped.

Something inside Caine explodes, but he contains it. He wants to scream, to growl, to tear apart whoever has dared to put their hands over his children. But this rage is… chaotic. Destructive. He needs to focus. 

He puts away the desperate father inside him and brings out the cold-blooded skyjacker; the hunter.

He sees the lights of the ships leaving the planet as he approaches.

Time takes its normal speed and it’s running fast. 

“Hold the fire! I’m on them,” Caine barks heading for a big dark ship followed by a float of Shadows.

“I’m right behind them!”

“Where is Cephei?”

“With Moltka. They weren’t after her.”

“Mikka’s alerting the Aegis,” Kiza’s voice emerged from a third channel, “We are ready to block them!”

“Jam their systems! Don’t let them open a portal!”

Caine stops his ship at the sight of Kiza’s cruiser. The pulse it emits is almost visible, shaking floating particles of stellar dust as it advances to the hostile ship and the shadows. All the vessels touched by it loose their impulse and start floating aimlessly, even Stinger’s.

“I’m boarding them,” growls Caine between his clenched teeth, his hands shaking over the controls with contained fury “get everyone ready and wait for my signal.”


	3. Thursday

Caine enters the ship, mauler in hand and shield ready to block any possible attack, but as he makes his way through the hallways, everything is calm and silent. He starts to think with dismay that maybe the ship is actually empty and that this one is just a decoy, when he reaches the bridge and sees a gigantic figure waiting for him.

“Hey, dats daddy!” says Max happily pointing at him, shaking a stuffed animal with his hand, as he’s being held in the green arms of a Sargon, “Hi daddy!”

“Hey Max,” he murmurs, as normal as the clenched muscles of his jaw allow him to. He glances at him quickly to make sure that he’s okay and his gun is pointing slightly to the left of his head, “Miss Koat.”

“Mister Wise,” Koat lowers her head as a form of salute. She seems too calm for someone who’s at gunpoint and Caine notices her big claws are around Max’s belly.

“What do you want?” he asks, stepping slowly towards them, considering his options to neutralize the Sargon without hurting his son.

“You can put the gun down.”

In another life he would have laughed out loud at such comment. He used to find humor even in the direst of situations, but right now he only manages to reply with a cold “I don’t think so.”

Koat lifts her tail, pointing at the darken room, “Look around you.”

He does it; a quick movement of his eyes. There are two other bodies lying unconscious, or maybe dead, on the chairs in front of the lifeless control panel. They are Sargon too. The one in front of him moves forward and Caine raises his gun again, but then he has to lower it down immediately when the lizard hands him his child.

“Are you alright Max?” Caine whispers to his son’s ear full of relief, kissing his head lightly and pointing his gun one more time right between miss Koat’s eyes.

“He’s unharmed,” she says, taking him out of his thoughts, while retreating and raising her hands and tail.

 _Everything’s fine. We can go now,_ a voice urges in Caine’s head. It sounds like Jupiter to him, but he knows he cannot just leave like that. He needs to have some answers first.

“It is nap time daddy?” Max is pointing at the lifeless bodies besides miss Koat and Caine turns slightly so he doesn’t look at them.

“I didn’t know they would take the child,” the Sargon continues, her steady grey eyes going from Max to Caine, “The plan was to get you, but you weren’t there.”

“Why me?”

“Revenge.”

“Greeghan,” Caine growls and Koat only blinks but he doesn’t need an answer to know he’s right. It’s been so long since the Jupiter refinery… He thinks of the moment he let her into his house, how sure he was that there was no risk… He thought they were safe and look where they are now “You’ve been planning this since last year?”

“Daddy dat is spaceships!” Max is now looking through the window, pointing at the vessels with one hand and the stuffed dog falls from the other one in his effort to tug on his father’s clothes “Daddy!”

“Wait a minute, Max.”

“But we are on space!”

“We’ve been planning this for years,” Miss Koat’s eyes are fixed on the little boy’s every move.

Caine moves one more time, trying to shield him from her, “And Kalique?”

“She doesn’t know anything. Lady Abrasax was just a way in… this is a Sargon matter.”

Caine couldn’t help to let a lightly sigh of relief. Is not that he cares if Kalique’s on their side or against them, but he knows that if she were involved in something like this, Jupiter would be heartbroken.  

“Then… why?” Caine looks again at the unconscious bodies and his hold on the boy and the gun tightens.

“I didn’t agree when they decided that the kid should be punished for what you did…” she stops talking and Caine has the feeling that there is something more she wants to say, but when he’s about to press about it he gets a message from Kiza on his communication implant: she announces that they are ready to board and he decides it is time to get his son back on Earth. He starts to turn around but stops again, hesitating.

“We going now?” Max asks, looking at his dad and then at Miss Koat.

“They are going to arrest you anyway,” Caine mutters, finally putting his gun back in his belt.

“Good,” Miss Koat’s voice is low and she finally lets her hands and tail down, “I’d rather face the Aegis than face my people…”

Caine looks one more time at the bodies, and he gets it. The Sargon are brutal with traitors. What she’s to do to save his son… he tries to think for a second if there is a way he can help her but the idea comes from that voice inside his head, the one that sounds like Jupiter. He realizes then that his fury is gone. Deep down he’s definitely mad at himself for getting too comfortable and letting this happen, but what he’s feeling mostly right know is…

“Thank you,” Caine whispers and finally turns around to leave. He doesn’t see Max sadly waving his hand at Miss Koat or the way she lifts her claws at him when they turn around the corner, but he does hear him say something about a dog that fell before leaving the Sargon ship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And voilà. Here's what happened in chapter 4 of 'Playdate' and why the kids weren't at the park that day, in case someone was wondering... 
> 
> If someone is reading, I hope you enjoy it and i'll see you guys in the next fic!


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